Outmanned Ucf Falls In Texas

AUSTIN, Texas — The Knights landed a few jabs, but they were eventually pummeled by the Longhorns.

Central Florida (5-4, 3-2 in Conference USA) lost 35-3 to No. 2 Texas (9-0, 5-0 in Big 12) before an announced crowd of 101,003 at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium.

"Texas is a very good football team," UCF coach George O'Leary said. "I think the big thing is that we played well in spurts. We gave up too many big plays on defense. ... I think offensively we were very sporadic and basically didn't sustain enough drives to get anything done."

O'Leary rejected the suggestion the Knights didn't play their best hand, holding out starting quarterback Brett Hodges, running back Brynn Harvey and defensive tackle Travis Timmons.

O'Leary said he was not resting the Knights for a big showdown looming with C-USA foe No. 13 Houston on Saturday in Orlando.

UCF drops to 0-22 all-time and 0-9 during O'Leary's tenure against Top 25 opponents.

Sophomore Rob Calabrese, who entered this season as the Knights' starter before losing the top spot to Hodges, started for the Knights. Calabrese helped lead UCF to a 3-0 advantage with 13 minutes left in the second quarter.

It was the highlight of the day for the Knights' offense. Calabrese was 10 of 19 for 76 yards.

UCF had 151 yards offense and 15 first downs.

"I thought we could have executed better," Calabrese said. "It's a tough loss, and I thought everybody played their hardest - played the entire 60 minutes - and I'm proud of everybody."